A senior Microsoft executive has denied the company will increase prices for Windows 7 upgrades in Europe because of the ongoing investigation into Internet Explorer.

Microsoft will not offer an upgrade version of Windows 7 to users in Europe. Instead they will be offered the full version for the price of an upgrade. This is because the retail version without a browser will not be ready for October and an upgrade would likely leave a version of Internet Explorer on your machine.

In a letter to the FT today Bill Veghte said: "We will not have an upgrade version available in Europe when we release the new operating system. Therefore, we've decided to offer the full version of Windows 7 to all customers at the lower upgrade price. In the future we may have an upgrade offering of Windows 7 available in Europe, and at that time we would revert to differential pricing."

The company also admitted that its recent move to offer Windows 7 without a browser was taken without the prior approval of the European Commission. The Commission gave a rather frosty reception (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/06/12/microsoft_windows_no_ie/) to that bit of grandstanding.

Tip of the hat to Computerworld and its entertaining report of its spat with Waggener Edstrom (http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&taxonomyName=operating_systems&articleId=9135007&taxonomyId=89&intsrc=kc_top), Microsoft's public relations firm over this story.

And thanks to eBuyer which has let slip UK OEM prices (http://ebuyer.com/search?page=1&store=6&cat=107&subcat=2937) - Windows Vista with Windows 7 upgrade form is £90.90 for the 32-bit version and £91.20 for the 64-bit version. ®

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